Have you ever dreamt of having a piano lesson with the “Poet of the Piano” Fryderyk Chopin? Hershey Felder’s Chopin in Paris brings the Polish master to the Wallis Annenberg’s Lovelace Theater for a charming evening and music lesson at his sumptuous Paris salon.
Entering through a pair of French doors, Chopin welcomes students (the audience) to the lesson. As the evening progresses, Maestro Chopin takes you on a personal and intimate journey, sharing not only his music, but little known facts about himself and his romance with notorious cigar smoking, trouser wearing French novelist and feminist Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin better known as George Sand.
Hershey Felder’s stunning performance is so riveting, so lifelike, the actor seems to inhabit the master himself with all his pain, fear, and triumphs. An outstanding pianist, Felder performs some Chopin’s most beautiful, loved, enduring music, and reveals the composer’s thoughts on composition, performing in public (he deplored it), his reverence for Bach, and friendships with Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt, and French artist Eugene Delacroix.
Performed at the Wallis Annenberg’s intimate Lovelace Theatre, Chopin/Felder, invites the audience to ask any question they like, setting up an interesting and revealing side to the artist’s improvisational skills as he responds and jokes with the “students”. Felder, has obviously done his homework digging into the personality, thinking and mystery of the genius pianist, making this a very special, and educational evening.
CHOPIN IN PARIS runs through July 24, 2022, with performance at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sundays. The WallisAnnenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9290 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, California. Tickets range from $39 to $99. For information and reservations, call 310-746-4000 or go to: https://www.thewallis.org/
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